American Art Seminar

Catalog description

This undergraduate seminar focuses on the art of the United States, the European American colonies that preceded it, and the increasingly diverse and complicated communities that have come to characterize the modern era. Topics may explore representational, material, and aesthetic aspects of painting, sculpture, and photography; the social and political roles of mass visual and material culture; and histories of exhibitions and museums. The history of artistic genres (portraiture, history, and landscape painting, still life); representational structures (common themes and types); and reproduction technologies (photography, sculpture casting, and printmaking) throughout the history of this nation may also be featured. The class is reading- and discussion-based. It is recommended for art history and other humanities majors and minors.